The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-04-29
ERAsTUs wIMAN,s CYCLONE.
It Grinds Up Nails and Quartz, and Pulvel
ICES Whatever 1t Is Fed On.


It Grinds Up Nails and Quartz, and Pulver-
ICES Whatever 1t Is Fed On.
New York Tribune.
.Erastus Wiman has purchased cyclone. He
says this has no connection with his Staten
Island circus, ard that he will not advertise it
later as wonderful machine to fan the heat
ed brows of weary toilers in the citys sun; but,
the contrary, he will use the captured giant
for the benefit of the poor man, in tightening
his labors, and SO on, for Mr.. Wiman, as is well
known, is captivating conversationalist. 1t is
a fact. however. that he has purchased cyclone.
The Raymond Brothers, of Chicago, were max
ing trip out West last year and on the edge
of one OF the prairias in Michigan came across
a nest of cyclones while the parents were absent
foragng for food. Noticing the sturdy strength
of the youngsters. Albert suggested they might
capture one of them. and use it to grind their
corn. His lazy brother thought there was merit
in the suggestion. and. accordingly, one
OF the young ones was placed
in hop pocket, and expressed
home to Chicago Its force was used in various
mechanical contrlvances there. but in grinding
wheat it was found to be failure, it made
distinction between the hull and the corn.
but ground all up together. When the Montreal
winter carnival was drawing to a close, smart
Kanuck speculator bought the young cyclone for
the purpose of MASKING the ice palace into mint
juieps. and it was while the imprisoned giant
was faithfully performing this duty that the
speculative tendencies of Mr.. Wiman were ap
pealed to in it's behalf. Mr.. WIman saw mill
ions in it. and at once had it conveyed to New
York.
There have been no public performances yet:
only few private rehearsals, and to of
these it was the good fortune of Tribune
porter to receive invitation. 1t was held in a
lonely spot right at the foot of Fourteenth
street and near the North river. The gentleman
who acted as Snowman was Of swarthy COM
plexion, huge mustache and suave manners
He called himself Smith-simply J. A. Smith.
But this merely rhearsal When the
regular performances take place, Mr.. Wiman
will probably rechristen him, and he will bios
som forth as Signor Heigho Presto, the greatest
prestidigitator OF the age And with good rea-
son, for the results shown by Mr.. Smith and his
little cyclone are but little removed from the
marvellous.
Mr. Smith first showed cast-iron cylinder
about the size Of a hall stove. Across the center
was spindle turned by ratchet movement,
and near the bottom were two miniature steam
ship screws, of two blades each, placed opposite
to each other. The cylinder measured just
| foot in diameter andthe two screws. or heaters,
Mr. Smith called them seven inches by three
and one-half inches. Then the Snowman took
| big iron plate, on which Cyclone Pulverizer"
was painted. and screwed it on the face of the
| cylinder.
Now gentlemen" he said, drawing up his
| sleeves with Just the same action as the Sunday
| school conjurer. when he Is going to turn the
| ground coffee into brown sugar you will see at
! the bottom of the cylinder two orifices, one
| each side. of the dimensions of one and one-half
| inch by three inches. Above the center are two
alr-ValV6S LWlc0 tulS SIZE SSdEt tH0 engine,
| and the heaters, revolving IN contrary directlons
at the rate Of $500 revolutions minute. bring
| into lively activity the imprisoned cyclone. Now
| we will produce the national colors. Here you
| see. gentemen-no deception--a few pounds of
| iron oxide. place this in the spout at the
right the revolving spindle carries this into the
machine and drops it into the center of the cy
| clone. Beholdw
seconds; through the little hole red dust rose
| up like flame. and part of it settled the
| wndow-ledge of the hopper. Then white quartz
| was cast into the spout, and a soft white sed-
ment topped the red to the depth of half an
inch. A piece of blue stone was next expert
mented upon. The dust that rose up was as fine
jet of steam It settled on the window
| ledge above tho others, and then Professor Smith
| rubbed his hands and said: 1.-The national COL
ors, seew
After this there were number Of experiments
with a more utitarian object Probably the
most important of these was the pulverization of
| plumbago. Not only is it done so much quicker
in this than by any other known process, but the
pulverized material is sorted and divided into
five grades. This is extremely simple There
are five hoppers connected with the machine and
the plumbago is deposited in each according TO
its specific gravity, the one nearest the cyclone
being the coarsest. and the finer grades being
deposited by the action of Milwaukee separator.
To the inexperienced eye all these grades ap-
peared of an equal degree of fineness, even when
spread out with palette knife on white paper;
but Mr.. Smith said that two of them were finer
than what is known as druggists plum DaCo.
obtained by chemical processes
This grading merit of the machine was shown
by another experiment In Canada there are
many beds OF phosphate with mica Together
they are useless but the cyclone pulveriZes
them; the same law of specific gravity divides
them, and you have the mica without the phos
plate and the phosphate without the mica
What a beautiful thing the powdered mica is, 81
soft and smooth to the touch little lump wa,
passed into the machine, and Immediately TIT
big bin glistened as with hoar frost.
The experiments with chemicals were inter
rupted by u gentleman who had with him a soar
box filled with North Carolina quartz. In a few
minutes it was dust, and he had it in a pan unde
the water-tap in the mechanics shop gentl,
rocking it to and fro until the dust was washet
out and the dark ore left in little heap. '.Tha
pans ont we'll, he said. ''and think the cyclone
will beat any ore erusher in the world
"You haven't seen half it can do vet" said Mr.
Smith, with patronizing air of pride such a
alchemst might assume. He emptied half Ike
of nails into the machine, and took from it
peck measure ONO not gold, but impapabl
black powder. such might have passed 70
gold in the olden days. When the machine wa
opened, the bits of nails, held in suspension a
its motion was arrested, were found at the boz
tom, most of them rounded like shot. Th